How Rick Pitino helped prepare NC State’s Kevin Keatts for the Final Four 

GLENDALE, Ariz. — When NC State was in a slump to end the regular season — 10 of its final 14 games ended in a loss — Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts found himself on the phone with his former boss, who he calls the “GOAT”: current St. John’s coach Rick Pitino.  Keatts worked for Pitino at Louisville for three seasons, including two trips to the Final Four with the 2013 National Championship. The two spoke on the phone about the rumblings of his job security on social media, and Pitino heard the same confidence that he had seen from Keatts when he hired him.  “He said, ‘Coach, I’m just going to coach and do the best I can do. Help the players win, get better and I’m not going to pay attention to the noise,’” Pitino recalled on a phone call with TheWolfpacker.com this week. “It’s something that he handled with class.” Pitino, a two-time national championship winning coach, knew that Keatts had it in him to turn it around. Now, after nine straight wins NC State is in the Final Four for the first time since 1983, and Keatts is the fourth former Pitino assistant to make the final weekend as a head coach.